Subject: [L-I] US bombs Red Crescent dispensary Reuters (with additional material by MSNBC and Ananova). 31 October 2001. U.S. Bombs Hit Afghan Red Crescent Dispensary, Doctor Says. KANDAHAR -- A pre-dawn U.S. air raid hit a dispensary of the Red Crescent society in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Wednesday, killing 11 people, a doctor who said he was wounded in the attack told reporters. "The bombs fell at 4.30 this morning," Dr. Obaidullah told the reporters who were escorted by the Taliban to the dispensary in the Dagh Pul suburb of Kandahar. Obaidullah, his head, right hand and left leg in bandages from wounds he said he had sustained in the raid, said 11 people -- including patients and staff at the facility -- had been killed and six wounded in the raid. U.S. forces had drawn criticism earlier for twice bombing Red Cross warehouses in Kabul. [N.B.] On Tuesday, a senior U.S. military official told NBC News that the Red Cross warehouses were not hit by accident, saying they were bombed because Taliban troops had commandeered the food stored there. Reporters heard U.S. planes dropping at least one bomb on the city in two pre-dawn raids, one of which took place at about 4.30 a.m. Dozens of people gathered at the scene of the attack in a city that has been the target of almost daily U.S. bombing in Washington's war on terror aimed at punishing the Taliban and flushing out their guest, Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. "Down with Bush," "Down with America," the crowd shouted as foreign reporters arrived near the site of the attack. Two waves of U.S. jets roared over Kandahar in pre-dawn raids, dropping at least one bomb that shook the city while smaller explosions echoed in the distance. "It was huge, the whole building was shaking," said a Reuters reporter. The first planes roared overhead around 4:30 a.m. and were swiftly followed by the sound of small explosions and firing. The second wave came an hour later. They screamed in from the west and dropped at a bomb, triggering an explosion that seemed to come from the center of the city. Such was the intensity of the blast that windows in the suburbs rattled and the ground shook. Witnesses estimated that each of the two attacks involved between 30 and 50 explosions. "They are targeting the civilian population," said local resident Mohammad Hashim. "Can someone tell us if they are targeting Arab positions," he said referring to the fearsome foreign fighters in bin Laden's al Qaeda network who man the front lines at many Taliban positions and who come not only from Arab countries but from Pakistan and Chechnya. "Have they targeted Taliban positions so far?" he asked. Businessman Haji Abdul Qayuum said his house had been hit. He built it only last year at a cost of $3,500 to take advantage of the peace in the city, said Qayuum, who was doing business in electronic goods from Dubai before the raids began. "The Americans drop bombs, and we are helpless," he said. "We want the Americans to send in their ground forces. Then we can do something." That defiance was echoed by fruit shop keeper Zai-ur-Rehman Faruqi. "We approve of the policy of the Taliban on Osama bin Laden. He is our guest," he said. "He is here for jihad (holy war)." The United States was using the airwaves of the Taliban's Radio Kandahar to broadcast its propaganda messages to residents, urging people to distance themselves from the militia, the private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. The Taliban claims locals are ignoring the broadcasts because they don't believe USpropaganda. "The Americans will not succeed in their mission of corrupting our people," a Talibanspokesman in Kandahar is quoted as saying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with continuing coverage of WWIII _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________
